Father in court in child shooting

Published: Friday, February 28, 2014 at 02:59 PM.

A father appeared in court Friday on charges related to his 3-year-old child shooting a 17-month-old sibling three weeks ago, authorities said.

Justin Carper was charged Feb. 21 with failure to secure a firearm to protect a minor, said Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Capt. Joel Shores. Carper, who previously wrote a parenting column for The Star, made his first appearance in court on that charge after one of his children shot a sibling Feb. 6 at the family's home near Patterson Springs.

Carper left a 9 mm handgun in a secret compartment on top of his dresser, authorities previously told The Star. His 3-year-old found the gun and pulled the trigger, injuring his 17-month-old sister in her shoulder, the Star previously reported.

The 17-month-old was taken to the hospital but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Carper told The Star on Feb. 6.

“He was given a criminal summons and not arrested,” Shores said of Carper's charge in the incident.

An individual receives a criminal summons when they are not arrested but receive an order to appear in court, Shores said.

“After meeting with the district attorney and seeing Carper has no criminal record, we did not have any reason to believe that he wouldn’t appear in court,” Shores said. “We would didn’t feel he was a danger to society and felt he obviously had been traumatized and learned a valuable lesson.”

Carper's next court date was set during his appearance Friday, Shores said. The N.C. court system had not reported that updated date as of Friday afternoon.

Reach Jessica Pickens at 704-669-3332 or jpickens@shelbystar.com.

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A father appeared in court Friday on charges related to his 3-year-old child shooting a 17-month-old sibling three weeks ago, authorities said.

Justin Carper was charged Feb. 21 with failure to secure a firearm to protect a minor, said Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Capt. Joel Shores. Carper, who previously wrote a parenting column for The Star, made his first appearance in court on that charge after one of his children shot a sibling Feb. 6 at the family's home near Patterson Springs.

Carper left a 9 mm handgun in a secret compartment on top of his dresser, authorities previously told The Star. His 3-year-old found the gun and pulled the trigger, injuring his 17-month-old sister in her shoulder, the Star previously reported.

The 17-month-old was taken to the hospital but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Carper told The Star on Feb. 6.

“He was given a criminal summons and not arrested,” Shores said of Carper's charge in the incident.

An individual receives a criminal summons when they are not arrested but receive an order to appear in court, Shores said.

“After meeting with the district attorney and seeing Carper has no criminal record, we did not have any reason to believe that he wouldn’t appear in court,” Shores said. “We would didn’t feel he was a danger to society and felt he obviously had been traumatized and learned a valuable lesson.”

Carper's next court date was set during his appearance Friday, Shores said. The N.C. court system had not reported that updated date as of Friday afternoon.